Chinese form largest group of unregistered residents

By Park Si-soo

Nearly 14 percent of the 1.23 million foreign residents in South Korea are overstaying their visas as of last month, the government said Wednesday.

Of the 169,800 staying illegally, Chinese accounted for nearly half of the 76,350, including 23,213 ethnic Koreans from China, followed by 15,787 Vietnamese, the Ministry of Justice said.

A total of 5,084 American citizens are here without a proper visa.

The total number of undocumented foreigners compares with 174,000 in June, 2010, with 46 percent of them, or 80,400, being Chinese nationals.

By visa type, 42,993 with E-9 work visa violations accounted for the largest group of illegal residents, followed by those admitted with C-3 visas at 34,324, C-2 visas at 20,789 and B-1 visas at 14,725.

Nearly 81.2 percent of people who entered the country on C-2 visas are beyond the allowed length of stay.

C-2 visas are issued to those whose purpose of visit is business-related, such as establishing a company and or purchasing products.

The government plans to toughen punishments against businesses hiring illegal sojourners.

From July, companies caught for hiring undocumented foreigners will be banned from employing foreign workers for the next three years, the labor ministry said.